Non-Indigenous Positionality when Engaging in de-colonising/re-indigenising Research and Its Place Within Visual Methodology

Abstract

The aim and purpose of this article has been to advocate for autobiographical investigation and identification of positionality when non-indigenous researchers engage in indigenous methodologies. My experience as an international adoptee from a Romanian orphanage who experienced unsafe research practice shaped my emancipatory positioning and interpretive lens. It is from this positioning and experience of marginalisation I was concerned with finding a research paradigm that positions participants not as objective objects; but rather as rivers of knowledge with stories that determine the tide of the research. The lens of tangata tiriti (people of the treaty) from which I base my practice in Aotearoa, New Zealand; invites a positionality of neighbourliness, thus prioritising de-colonising/re-indigenising methodologies. The focus for my research project explored the disconnection between teachers who hold a Biblical world view and their students who experienced feelings of agitation and frustration. The participants contributed insights about teachers’ pedagogy drawn from responding to two prompts: “what is happening when you were empowered by your teachers to flourish?” and “what is happening when you feel disempowered by your teachers?” The chosen research method Photoyarn, is a recently emerged form of photo-elicitation created by Jessa Rogers that honours aboriginal yarning circles. This article makes the case for recognizing our ontological and epistemological positioning thus maintaining authenticity in research and holding steadfast the ethical disposition intention of doing no harm.